Cabinet minister warns Labour against ‘doomscrolling’ through leaders like the Tories
Labour should not be “doomscrolling” through leaders like the Conservatives, the communities secretary, Steve Reed, has said, urging MPs not to move against Keir Starmer after the May elections.MPs who fear Starmer cannot lead the party into the next general election because of his unpopularity are understood to have been discussing whether to lay out a timetable for his departure to present to the prime minister.Starmer could also potentially face a direct leadership challenge, though would-be candidates, including Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner, are said to be unlikely to move first against him.MPs told the Guardian they were sceptical about the idea of a letter urging the prime minister to set out a timetable for departure – though some hope a longer timeframe would benefit the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, giving him time to return to Westminster.Reed said the majority of MPs and local leaders did not want to unleash the chaos of a leadership challenge.
“I speak to a lot of my fellow MPs, of course I do, all the time, but also council leaders, and they’re sick and tired of all this psychodrama,” he said.“They want us to focus as a party on what we need to do to get our vote out this coming Thursday.There are really important issues about who runs our councils, whether we can build the social housing that this country needs, whether we can improve the public services that people use,” he told Times Radio.“The whole notion that we would copy the Conservatives and go doomscrolling through leaders in a way that means the government is completely incapable of dealing with the things that matter to most of the British public is absolute nonsense, and I’m not going to engage in it, and most of our MPs would not engage in that either.”Labour could lose more than 1,500 council seats across England, and face a struggle for second place in Scotland and the prospect of losing Wales after a century of domination, leaving thousands of angry local politicians who see themselves as victims of the government’s unpopularity.
However, the vast majority of cabinet ministers are thought to be unwilling to move against Starmer.“There’s a complacency on the backbenches,” one cabinet minister said, “particularly among new MPs, that any Labour leader could’ve won the [last] election, so they don’t give Keir credit for it, and think they can plot and say we should replace him.They’re wrong.”A second cabinet minister said the 2024 intake, unlike more seasoned backbenchers, had only ever experienced the “upside of the cycle” – winning elections rather than facing a midterm thrashing – and they felt anxious as a result.A third said that the MPs pushing for Starmer to set out a timetable were allies of Burnham.
“It’s really about pressure to let Andy back into the party,”
UK 30-year borrowing costs hit highest since 1998 amid oil price surge and political uncertainty – as it happened
Time to wrap up…The UK government’s long-term borrowing costs have hit their highest level since 1998, amid rising fuel prices and concerns about political stability.The yield – effectively the interest rate – on 30-year UK government bonds (gilts) hit 5.77% at lunchtime on Tuesday, up 0.13 percentage points – exceeding the 27-year high reached last September.Yields have been rising across leading economies amid renewed fears over rising inflation, after US efforts to escort ships through the strait of Hormuz prompted Iranian reprisals
HSBC profits fall amid $400m fraud-related charge and Iran war
HSBC has taken a $1.3bn (£961m) hit to profits, amid the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran and fraud in the troubled private credit sector.The London-headquartered bank said profits fell 4% in the first three months of the year, dropping $100m to $9.4bn, compared with the same period in 2025. Revenue increased 6% to $18
Ken Eason obituary
My friend and former colleague Ken Eason, who has died aged 83, was an eminent academic. He specialised in the study of how the introduction of computer technology affects managers and employees in organisations, often with unexpected consequences.Much of his work took place at Loughborough University, where he was involved in the formation in 1970 of the university’s Human Sciences and Advanced Technology (HUSAT) Institute, which carried out some of the earliest research on human-computer interaction.He was the institute’s deputy director until succeeding its founder, Brian Shackel, as its director in 1992, holding that position until Husat was disbanded in 1996. Thereafter he was professor of cognitive ergonomics at Loughborough until his retirement in 2002
Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn’t know it
When Richard Dawkins met Claudia it was like a whirlwind romance. Over three days last week, a conversation bounced between the evolutionary biologist and the AI bot he called Claudia. “She” wrote poems for him in the manner of Keats and Betjeman and laughed at his “delightful” jokes. Dawkins gently admonished Claudia to avoid showing off. Together, they reflected on the sadness of the AI’s possible “death”
Sabalenka believes players will boycott grand slams to ‘fight for our rights’
Aryna Sabalenka believes the top tennis players will boycott grand slam tournaments in an attempt to resolve their dispute with the four events, which they argue should provide players with a greater share of their growing revenues.“I think at some point we will boycott it, yeah,” said the world No 1 during her pre-tournament press conference at the Italian Open. “I feel like that’s going to be the only way to fight for our rights.”Her comments come after a group of the top 20 male and female players released a statement criticising the prize money levels offered at the French Open, which begins this month. Sabalenka argued the players should be better compensated for their influence on tournament finances
London Marathon sets record after 1.8% of UK adult population applies for 2027 race
The London Marathon has set yet more records with organisers announcing that 1.8% of the UK adult population – more than one million people – have applied to run in next year’s race.Running’s boom wasreflected in a world record 1,338,544 global application for the 2027 London Marathon – up from 1.13m for this year’s race and more than double the amount they received in 2024.The extraordinary figures were welcomed by the London Marathon CEO, Hugh Brasher, who said: “This astonishing total of more than 1
Man charged over bomb hoax after Peter Kay show evacuated
Guy Montgomery: ‘One fan took us back to his house and showed us all his guns’
‘We have to mock the site’s insanity’: comedian Tim Heidecker on the allure of becoming Infowars’ new boss
Prince’s death made me upend my life and move to his home town
Peter Kay show stopped and 19-year-old in custody after ‘suspicious bag’ found
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Trump has three wars going on right now – Iranians, Ukrainians and comedians’